London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

BBC chairman Lord Patten made a speedy entrance and exit last night at a party he hosted to celebrate the launch of an online archive of Alistair Cooke’s Letter From America. Arriving in time to make his speech in which he praised Cooke as “one of the glories of the BBC, one of the greatest journalists of the 20th century and its greatest radio essayist”, Patten left before guests had a chance to chat.

He also seemed distracted, starting his speech by muddling the deputy head of mission at the US embassy, Barbara Stephenson, with the head of Radio 4, Gwyneth Williams. “Thank you, deputy head of mission,” he said, following Williams’s introduction. Stephenson then quoted the first Marquess of Reading who, as ambassador in Washington 1918-19, said: “You can never be too short with a speech.”

Some wondered if the Savile affair and now inquiry hastened Patten’s departure from the BBC Council Chamber at Broadcasting House. Other guests included veteran BBC journalists Michael Cockerell and Kate Adie, and Barbara Want, widow of Nick Clarke, who wrote a much-praised biography of Cooke.